The problem is that these things, especially the custom ones written by faculty, won't work in Windows 7.
They were written for Windows XP and for old versions of browsers and Shockwave, and cannot run in modern operating systems or browsers.
It's traditional for IT professionals to just tell everyone to rewrite their software to conform with modern standards every few years, but that is ridiculous in this case. This stuff is not sold for profit, and there is no reward for the teachers or the students in rewriting training tools just so IT pros can stop supporting old products.
A much better option is to just keep using Windows XP forever. The only problem with that is that Microsoft is abandoning it in April, 2014, so it will no longer get security patches.
So the question is: How can schools continue using Windows XP after 2014 safely?
A much better option is to run the old operating system as a virtual machine on modern hardware running a modern operating system such as Windows 7 (or even, if you must, Windows 8).
The safest procedure is isolation -- keeping them off the Internet altogether.
If that can be done, that would be the best answer. Just run Windows XP in a virtual machine with no networking at all. Bring in the desired files on a USB stick and run them there.
Here are some solutions I know of.
VMware Workstation allows you to use snapshots to easily save a clean state and return to it. Infecting it and returning to a clean snapshot is a routine activity for malware analysts.
If a virtual machine gets infected or damaged, just discard it and make a fresh copy from the DVD.
I think this feature is still available in the latest version, but I'm not sure.
After 2014, the antivirus products for Windows XP may start to be abandoned too. But if you isolate the machines, and roll them back as needed, you could continue to use Windows XP anyway for many years after that date.
Posted 9-27-13 3:11 pm by Sam Bowne
Excess sarcasm removed 3:38 pm 9-27-13